Colorado air quality control officials and industry leaders are fine-tuning a plan to meet a 2008 limit while a tougher new one looms

Haze has set over downtown Denver, Wednesday, Feb. 08, 2012, seen from Golden. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

Front Range residents are failing to meet federal air standards, and state officials on Thursday were fine-tuning a required plan to comply with the 2008 limit of 75 parts per billion of ozone.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment won't impose new controls on polluters to meet that limit, said Will Allison, director of CDPHE's Air Pollution Control Division.

"The trends, overall, are that air pollution is declining," Allison said. "This, despite the fact that we've had tremendous growth in population and business."

But the Environmental Protection Agency has ratcheted down the old limit to 70 ppb. Colorado hasn't begun figuring out how to comply with the new limit.

Lawmakers are questioning the feasibility.

If Colorado fails to ensure healthy air, the EPA could step in and delay infrastructure projects.

For now, state air quality officials say they're counting on existing initiatives to shut coal-fired power plants, make sure oil and gas companies control emissions, and shift to cleaner vehicles to meet the 2008 limit.

State-run air monitoring stations in west metro Denver show ozone levels around 80 ppb. Ozone increased between 2014 and 2015, likely the result of a relatively wet, cool summer in 2014 that lowered ozone that year. Ozone measured in Fort Collins also exceeds 75 ppb.

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Ozone causes respiratory problems. It forms when certain pollutants — volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide — cook in sunlight. It is one type of pollution, along with particulates and carbon dioxide, that millions of Front Range residents breathe. Denver and surrounding counties comply with limits on other pollutants.

EPA officials are in the process of jacking up Colorado's status from "marginal" violator to "moderate" violator of federal clean air laws.

"There have been significant reductions in the pollutants that form ozone in the Denver area — nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds — but there also has been growth in the area that has somewhat offset the reductions," EPA spokeswoman Lisa McClain-Vanderpool said.

"Colorado can continue to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds in the Denver area, and potentially use new data gathered from research studies ... to target reductions from sources of emissions that have the most impact on ozone formation."

A spokesman for Sen. Michael Bennet said Colorado is on pace with its planning and that "our office will keep pushing the EPA to make sure implementation of the standards works for Colorado." Bennet staffers pointed to an EPA "exceptional events rule" — which federal authorities may use to take account of "background" ozone in western states.

Colorado officials contend much of the ozone throwing nine Front Range counties out of compliance is "background," meaning it originates in other states and countries such as Mexico and China — beyond Colorado's control.

Two state senators this week urged EPA officials to suspend efforts to enforce the 70 ppb limit, which was set last October.

Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, said he opposes the tougher limit "because of the control it will give federal bureaucrats over basic planning decisions."

Enforcing that limit "will penalize our state for background levels of ozone that come from outside Colorado and from natural sources like wildfires," Sonnenberg said in a prepared statement.

"Yet again the EPA has gone too far, imposing pointless and job-killing federal mandates on states and local governments. ... I am calling on the EPA to immediately halt the implementation of this punitive ozone rule."

Gov. John Hickenlooper believes "Colorado is in a good position moving forward to address ozone," spokeswoman Kathy Green said.

Hickenlooper "remains committed to the important health benefits associated with lower ozone concentrations."

If states fail to submit adequate plans to ensure healthy air, the EPA can impose sanctions and hold up funding for road-building. The EPA also can impose a federal plan to cut pollution.

"That's not in Colorado's interest," Allison said.

"Colorado will continue to do our part, which means looking for cost-effective approaches to reducing those emissions that we can control."

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